


Never Again

by ShuTodoroki



Category: Cars (Pixar Movies), Planes (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Backstory, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28151328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShuTodoroki/pseuds/ShuTodoroki
Summary: After Dusty's crash at Augerin Canyon, Blade can't help but feel like he's made the same mistake twice in the solitude of his hangar. Maru's there to tell him otherwise.
Relationships: Blade Ranger/Maru, Dusty Crophopper/Blade Ranger, Nick Loopin' Lopez/Blade Ranger
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	Never Again

Blade paced in his hangar after Windlifter dropped Dusty off in Maru’s care. He knew Maru was the best there is when it came to repairs, but he couldn’t help but worry. The sunlight shone in through his hangar windows, dancing along his frame, before he shut the blinds. He needed solitude. He felt like it was his fault that Dusty crashed, even though he saw the smoke come out of his propeller. 

_“You don’t have what it takes! You don’t!”_ He said in that moment of anger. Granted, the air racer had disobeyed all of his orders up to that point, but he felt like that was why Dusty did what he did. He wanted to prove himself, and he certainly did. He just hoped Dusty would recover. He wouldn’t forgive himself for making the same mistake twice otherwise.

He found his tortured mind bringing him back to that moment, so long ago. _No. Don’t do it._ He told himself, but it was too late. 

_“It’s been a good run, partner…”_ That was the last he ever heard from Nick. From that point onward, he would hear Nick’s voice, but it never came from the late Hughes. It tortured him when he tried to sleep. It tortured him when he was scouting for spot fires. It tortured him in his dreams.

_“Why didn’t you save me?”_

And Blade could never give a coherent answer. There was always a pause, a stutter, a stammer, because he couldn’t bring himself to say _“I didn’t know what to do.”_

He turned to firefighting as his new passion. If he saved lives for real, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. He’d be able to save anyone who depended on him. He wouldn’t be a failure again. Yet, with Dusty unconscious, and no idea of when he would wake up, Blade felt a haunting similarity to how he felt waiting at the hospital. 

Dread. Fear. Hopelessness. He didn’t know when one emotion drowned into the other. It was all a mish mash which led to a feeling of emptiness. He knew that a part of him died when Nick died. He took Nick for granted, if he was being honest with himself.

He always chewed him out when he got irritated by the smaller helicopter’s antics.

_“Nick, we have to finish this take.”_

_“Nick, stop goofing around.”_

_“Nick, did you forget your lines again?”_

But he never said what he wanted to say nearly enough.

_“Nick, I care about you.”_

_“Nick, I’m your best friend.”_

_“Nick, you can count on me.”_

Most importantly, there was something that he didn’t say on that fateful day.

_“Nick, don’t do that loop.”_

What was the point of dwelling on the past? One might ask. You can’t change the past. However, you can learn from your mistakes. Never again would Blade take another for granted. Never again would Blade be helpless. Never again would Blade lose another. 

But what did those “never agains” come to? Nothing. He had done everything he did to Nick to Dusty. He always pointed out his flaws. He was helpless when Dusty lay lifeless on the charred forest floor. The only thing left hanging was him losing Dusty, and the Augusta Westland was losing hope in that department. 

He was starting to question what his status as the Chief of Fire and Rescue even meant at this point. Maybe he thought if he was the best in his field, he would be best at saving lives. Maybe it was a position of authority that he hid behind to support whatever remaining self esteem he had left. Whatever it was, it did nothing to fill that hole left behind.

He turned to firefighting to fix his mistakes, but what did he have to show for it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

A knock at the hangar doors brought Blade out of his thoughts, and he moved to open the doors. It didn’t matter who was there. Anything as a distraction would be great for his fragile mental state at the moment. He saw the purple forklift known as Maru when he opened the doors.

“Blade?” The forklift simply asked.

“Maru.” Blade replied, trying to look as composed as possible. Who wanted a chief who was so fragile? “How is Dusty?”

“He’s resting. His damage is actually less severe than yours was.” Maru told Blade.

Blade wanted to be happy, but his mind wanted to be pessimistic. _Dusty is smaller than you are. Injuries are subjective._ “…That’s good.”

Maru knew that something was wrong, and he had an inkling as to what it was. “Blade, are you alright?”

Such a simple, yet profound question. Was he alright? In simplest terms, no. He was not. “Do I look alright?” He quipped, wanting the forklift to figure it out for himself. He knew his past. 

Maru sighed. “I came here to ask you that question, but I guess that it’s a no. It’s about Nick, isn’t it?”

Blade gave a wry chuckle in response. “When is it not about him?” 

“Blade, it’s not your fault.” 

“It was my fault in both cases.”

“It was a freak crosswind, and Dusty’s gearbox failed.” Maru replied. He wasn’t going to let the helicopter go down this line of thinking.

Blade shook his head. He was already too far into it. "All I could do was call for help. Nothing else."

"Need I remind you that your left side is still charred from when you took the brunt of the flames for Dusty." Maru pointed out. "Dusty was afraid that you weren't going to make it." 

Blade's eyes flitted over to the burnt part of his fuselage that Maru was talking about. He did do that. "How ironic that we've switched places, then." 

"Yeah, then he's going to get better like you did." Maru asserted.

Blade didn't look convinced. It was easy to say something was going to happen. He told himself that Nick was going to be alright, but that obviously didn't happen. "From my experience with Nick, I can't promise myself that." 

"Blade, Dusty is nothing like what happened to Nick." 

Blade scowled at that. "How would you know?" 

"Because you told me everything that happened when you wanted to put Nick's picture up on the wall. Don't you remember?" Maru recalled. What kind of question was that?

"Of course I do. But you weren't there. Dusty looks the same as Nick did. A badly dented, mangled, lifeless, shell." He accented each adjective that came out of his mouth to make a point. 

Maru shook his head. "Dusty has no fluid leaks, unlike the case with you. He's been in stable condition. Everything you saw was exterior damage." 

Blade was silent as he took in everything Maru said. Only exterior? That was it? "You're telling me nothing internal is damaged." 

"Besides his already damaged gearbox, yes." Maru confirmed. "Broken propeller, damaged wing ribs, a missing pontoon, but no hydraulic fluid leaks, which are usually a death sentence. I can tell you, Blade, that Dusty will be alright. Might take him a while to recover and come to, but he'll wake up. This isn't just to make you feel better. It's the truth." 

Blade seemed to analyze the purple forklift for a while, fighting with himself whether he should bring his hopes up like he did that long time ago, only to have them crushed. Somehow, he didn't know how, he felt that he could trust what Maru told him. Dusty wasn't like Nick. "You'd better go back to Dusty. He won't be alright if you leave him by himself any longer." 

"Dipper's by his side. She refuses to leave him." Maru told Blade.

"Sounds like something she'd do." 

Maru gave a light chuckle at that. "Yep." He then became serious again. Blade seemed better, but he needed to hear it from the chief himself. "Dusty will be alright." He reiterated. "Do you believe that?" 

Blade hesitated, before slowly nodding. "Yes. From what you've told me, I believe you." 

"Good. As you said, I'd better go back to check on Dusty." Maru said, turning around to head out, but not before stopping in his tracks. He turned around to face Blade again. "Blade?"

Blade regarded him silently, waiting for whatever he was going to say next. 

Maru sighed. "Don't blame yourself for everything, alright?" 

Silence permeated the air, until Blade broke it. "Alright." 

Maru headed out, closing the hangar doors, leaving Blade in his solitude again. 

If Dusty was going to wake up and be alright like Maru said, he wasn't going to make the same mistake. He was going to treat Dusty like he wasn't going to be there tomorrow. He was going to give Dusty what he came here for. He wasn't going to take Dusty for granted like he did Nick.

Never again.


End file.
